any value in the following imperfect sketch of literary compositions in the Scottish idiom. clergy had so often insulted mis dignity He encouraged Latin or English only, both of which he prided himself on writing with purity, though he himself never could acquire the English pronunciation, but spoke with a Scottish idiom and intonation to the last.-Scotsmen of talents declined writing in their native language, which they knew was not acceptable to their learned and pedantic monarch; and at a time when national prejudice and enmity prevailed to a great degree, they disdained to study the niceties of the English tongue, though of so much easier acquisition than a dead language. Lord Stirling and Drummond of Hawthornden, the only Scotsmen who wrote poetry in those times, were exceptions. They studied the language of England and composed in it with precision and elegance. They were however the last of their countrymen who deserved to be consider It is a circumstance not a little curious, and which does not seem to be satisfactorily explained, that in the thirteenth century, the language of the two British nations, if at all different, differed only in the dialect, the Gaelic in the one, like the Welsh and Armoric in the other, being confined to the mountainous districts.* The English under the Edwards, and the Scots under Wallace and Bruce, spoke the same language. We may observe also, that in Scotland the history of poetry ascends to a period nearly as remote as in England. Barbour, and Blind Harry, James the First, Dunbar, Douglas and Lindsay, who lived in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, were coeval with the fathers of poetry in England; and in the opinion of Mr. Whar-ed as poets in that century. The muses ton, not inferior to them in genius or in of Scotland sunk into silence, and did not composition. Though the language of again raise their voices for a period of the two countries gradually deviated eighty years. from each other during this period, yet the difference on the whole was not considerable; not perhaps greater than between the different dialects of the different parts of England in our own time. To what causes are we to attribute this extreme depression among a people comparatively learned, enterprising, and ingenious? Shall we impute it to the fanaticism of the covenanters, or to the tyranny of the house of Stuart, after their restoration to the throne? Doubtless these causes operated, but they seem unequal to account for the effect. In England, similar distractions and oppression took place, yet poetry flourished there in a remarkable degree. During this period, Cowley, and Waller, and Dryden sung, and Milton raised his strain of unparalleled grandeur. To the causes already mentioned, another must be added, in ac At the death of James the Fifth, in 1542, the language of Scotland was in a flourishing condition, wanting only writers in prose equal to those in verse. Two circumstances, propitious on the whole, operated to prevent this. The first was the passion of the Scots for composition in Latin; and the second, the accession of James the Sixth to the English throne. It may easily be imagined, that if Buchanan had devoted his admirable talents, even in part, to the culti-counting for the torpor of Scottish literavations of his native tongue, as was done by the revivers of letters in Italy, he would have left compositions in that language which might have incited other men of genius to have followed his example, and given duration to the language itself. The union of the two crowns in the person of James, overthrew all reasonable expectation of this kind. That monarch, seated on the English throne, would no longer suffer himself to be addressed in the rude dialect in which the Scottish ture-the want of a proper vehicle for men of genius to employ. The civil wars had frightened away the Latin Muses, and no standard had been established of the Scottish tongue, which was deviating still farther from the pure English idiom. The revival of literature in Scotland may be dated from the establishment of the union, or rather from the extinction of the rebellion in 1715. The nations being finally incorporated, it was clearly seen that their tongues must in the end incorporate also; or rather indeed that the Scottish language must degenerate into a provincial idiom, to be avoided by those who would aim at distinction in Soon after this, a band of men of genius appeared, who studied the English classics, and imitated their beauties, in the same manner as they studied the classics of Greece and Rome. They had admirable models of composition lately presented to them by the writers of the reign of Queen Anne; particularly in the periodical papers published by Steele, Addison, and their associated friends, which circulated widely through Scotland, and diffused every where a taste for purity of style and sentiment, and for critical disquisition. At length the Scottish writers succeeded in English composition, and a union was formed of the literary talents, as well as of the legislatures of the two nations. On this occasion the poets took the lead. While Henry Home,* Dr. Wallace, and their learned associates, were only laying in their intellectual stores, and studying to clear themselves of their Scottish idioms, Thomson, Mallet, and Hamilton of Bangour had made their appearance before the public, and been enrolled on the list of English poets. The writers in prose followed a numerous and powerful band, and poured their ample stores into the general stream of British literature. Scotland possessed her four universities before the accession of James to the English throne. Immediately before the union, she acquired her parochial schools. These establishments combining happily together, made the elements of knowledge of easy acquisition, and presented a direct path, by which the ardent student might be carried along into the recesses of science or learning. As civil broils ceased, and faction and prejudice gradually died away, a wider field was opened to literary ambition, and the influence of the Scottish institutions for instruction, on the productions of the press, became more and more apparent. letters, or rise to eminence in the united | the original inhabitants of the British isles legislature. possessed a peculiar and interesting species of music, which being banished from the plains by the successive invasions of the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, was preserved with the native race, in the wilds of Ireland and in the mountains of Scotland and Wales. The Irish, the Scottish, and the Welsh music differ, indeed, from each other, but the difference may be considered as in dialect only, and probably produced by the influence of time, and like the different dialects of their common language. If this conjecture be true, the Scottish music must be more immediately of a Highland origin, and the Lowland tunes, though now of a character somewhat distinct, must have descended from the mountains in remote ages. Whatever credit may be given to conjectures, evidently involved in great uncertainty, there can be no doubt that the Scottish peasantry have been long in possession of a number of songs and ballads composed in their native dialect, and sung to their native music. The subjects of these compositions were such as most interested the simple inhabitants, and in the succession of time varied probably as the condition of society varied. During the separation and the hostility of the two nations, these songs and ballads, as far as our imperfect documents enable us to judge, were chiefly warlike; such as the Huntis of Cheviot, and the Battle of Harlow. After the union of the two crowns, when a certain degree of peace and of tranquillity took place, the rural muse of Scotland breathed in softer accents. "In the want of real evidence respecting the history of our songs," says Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, "recourse may be had to conjecture. One would be disposed to think that the most beautiful of the Scottish tunes were clothed with new words after the union of the crowns. The inhabitants of the borders, who had formerly been warriors from choice, and husbandmen from necessity, either quitted the country, or were transformed into real shepherds, easy in their circumstances, and satisfied with their lot. sparks of that spirit of chivalry for which they are celebrated by Froissart, remained, sufficient to inspire elevation of sentiment and gallantry towards the fair sex. The familiarity and kindness which had long subsisted between the gentry and the peasantry, could not all at once be obliterated, and this connexion tended to sweeten rural life. In this state of inno It seems indeed probable, that the establishment of the parochial schools produced effects on the rural muse of Scotland also, which have not hitherto been suspected, and which, though less splendid in their nature, are not however to be regarded as trivial, whether we consider the happiness or the morals of the people. There is some reason to believe, that • Lord Kaimes. Some position, soundness of understanding, and sensibility of heart were more requisite than flights of imagination or pomp of numbers. Great changes have certainly taken place in Scottish song-writing, though we cannot trace the steps of this change; and few of the pieces admired in Queen Mary's time are now to be discovered in modern collections. It is possible, though not probable, that the music may have remained nearly the same, though the words to the tunes were entirely new-modelled."+ cence, ease and tranquillity of mind, the memory of their friends and neighbours love of poetry and music would still main- Neither known to the learned, nor patrotain its ground, though it would natural-nised by the great, these rustic bards livly assume a form congenial to the more ed and died in obscurity; and by a strange peaceful state of society. The minstrels, fatality, their story, and even their very whose metrical tales used once to rouse names have been forgotten.* When prothe borderers like the trumpet's sound, per models for pastoral songs were prohad been by an order of the legislature duced, there would be no want of imita(in 1579,) classed with rogues and vaga-tors. To succeed in this species of combonds, and attempted to be suppressed. Knox and his disciples influenced the Scottish parliament, but contended in vain with her rural muse. Amidst our Arcadian vales, probably on the banks of the Tweed, or some of its tributary streams, one or more original geniuses may have arisen, who were destined to give a new turn to the taste of their countrymen. They would see that the events and pursuits which chequer private life were the proper subjects for popular poetry. Love, which had formerly held a divided sway with glory and ambition, became now the master passion of the soul. To portray in lively and deli-It cate colours, though with a hasty hand, the hopes and fears that agitate the breast of the love-sick swain, or forlorn maiden, affords ample scope to the rural poet. Love-songs of which Tibullus himself would not have been ashamed, might be composed by an uneducated rustic with a slight tincture of letters; or if in these songs, the character of the rustic be some-ed each other in that disastrous period; times assumed, the truth of character, and it was not till after the revolution in the language of nature, are preserved. 1688, and the subsequent establishment With unaffected simplicity and tender- of their beloved form of church governness, topics are urged, most likely to sof-ment, that the peasantry of the Lowlands ten the heart of a cruel and coy mistress, enjoyed comparative repose; and it is or to regain a fickle lover. Even in such since that period, that a great number of as are of a melancholy cast, a ray of hope the most admired Scottish songs have breaks through, and dispels the deep and been produced, though the tunes to which settled gloom which characterizes the they are sung, are in general of much sweetest of the Highland luinags, or vo- greater antiquity. It is not unreasonacal airs. Nor are these songs all plain-ble to suppose that the peace and securitive; many of them are lively and humorous, and some appear to us coarse and indelicate. They seem, however, genuine descriptions of the manners of an energetic and sequestered people in their hours of mirth and festivity, though in their portraits some objects are brought into open view, which more fastidious painters would have thrown into shade. These conjectures are highly ingenious. cannot however, be presumed, that the state of ease and tranquillity described by Mr. Ramsay, took place among the Scottish peasantry immediately on the union of the crowns, or indeed during the greater part of the seventeenth century. The Scottish nation, through all its ranks, was deeply agitated by the civil wars, and the religious persecutions which succeed ty derived from the Revolution and the Union, produced a favourable change on the rustic poetry of Scotland; and it can scarcely be doubted, that the institution of parish-schools in 1696, by which a certain degree of instruction was diffused *In the Pepys Collection, there are a few Scottish songs of the last century, but the names of the authors are not preserved. "As those rural poets sung for amuse† Extract of a letter from Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre ment, not for gain, their effusions seldom to the Editor, Sept. 11, 1799.-In the Bee, vol. ii. is a exceeded a love-song, or a ballad of sacommunication to Mr. Ramsay, under the signature of tire or humour, which, like the works of more at large. In that paper he gives his reasons for J. Runcole, which enters into this subject somewhat the elder minstrels, were seldom commit-questioning the antiquity of many of the most celebrated ted to writing, but treasured up in the Scottish songs. universally among the peasantry, contri- | obtained to his own papers, if they are buted to this happy effect. Soon after this appeared Allan Ramsay, the Scottish Theocritus. He was born on the high mountains that divide Clydesdale and Annandale, in a small hamlet by the banks of Glangonar, a stream which descends into the Clyde. The ruins of this hamlet are still shown to the inquiring traveller.* He was the son of a peasant, and probably received such instruction as his parish-school bestowed, and the poverty of his parents admitted. Ramsay made his appearance in Edinburgh in the beginning of the present century, in the humble character of an apprentice to a barber, or peruke-maker; he was then fourteen or fifteen years of age. By degrees he acquired notice for his social disposition, and his talent for the composition of verses in the Scottish idiom; and, changing his profession for that of a bookseller, he became intimate with many of the literary, as well as of the gay and fashionable characters of his time. Having published a volume of poems of his own in 1721, which was favourably received, he undertook to make a collection of ancient Scottish poems, under the title of the EverGreen, and was afterwards encouraged to present to the world a collection of Scottish songs. "From what sources he procured them," says Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, "whether from tradition or manuscript, is uncertain. As in the EverGreen he made some rash attempts to improve on the originals of his ancient poems, he probably used still greater freedom with the songs and ballads. The truth cannot, however, be known on this point, till manuscripts of the songs printed by him, more ancient than the present century, shall be produced; or access be *See Campbell's History of Poetry in Scotland, p. 185. The father of Ramsay was, it is said, a workman In the lead-mines of the Earl of Hopeton, at Lead-hills. The workmen in those mines at present are of a very superior character to miners in general. They have only six hours of labour in the day, and have time for reading. They have a common library, supported by contribution, containing several thousand volumes, When this was instituted I have not learned. These miners are said to be of a very sober and moral character: Allan Ramsay, when very young, is supposed to have been a washer of ore in these mines. "He was coeval with Joseph Mitchell, and his club of small wits, who about 1719, published a very poor miscellany, to which Dr. Young, the author of the Night Thoughts prefixed a copy of verses.' Extract of a letter from Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre to the Editor still in existence. To several tunes which either wanted words, or had words that were improper or imperfect, he, or his friends, adapted verses worthy of the melodies they accompanied, worthy indeed of the golden age. These verses were perfectly intelligible to every rustic, yet justly admired by persons of taste, who regarded them as the genuine offspring of the pastoral muse. In some respects Ramsay had advantages not possessed by poets writing in the Scottish dialect in our days. Songs in the dialect of Cumberland or Lancashire could never be popular, because these dialects have never been spoken by persons of fashion. But till the middle of the present century, every Scotsman from the peer to the peasant, spoke a truly Doric language. It is true the English moralists and poets were by this time read by every person of condition, and considered as the standards for polite composition. But, as national prejudices were still strong, the busy, the learned, the gay, and the fair, continued to speak their native dialect, and that with an elegance and poignancy, of which Scotsmen of the present day can have no just notion. I am old enough to have conversed with Mr. Spittal, of Leuchat, a scholar and a man of fashion, who survived all the members of the Union Parliament, in which he had a seat. His pronunciation and phraseology differed as much from the common dialect, as the language of St. James's from that of Thames-street. Had we retained a court and parliament of our own, the tongues of the two sister-kingdoms would indeed have differed like the Castilian and Portuguese; but each would have had its own classics, not in a single branch, but in the whole circle of literature. "Ramsay associated with the men of wit and fashion of his day, and several of them attempted to write poetry in his manner. Persons too idle or too dissipated to think of compositions that required much exertion, succeeded very happily in making tender sonnets to favourite tunes in compliment to their mistresses, and, transforming themselves into impassioned shepherds, caught the language of the characters they assumed. Thus, about the year 1731, Robert Crawford of Auchinames, wrote the modern song of Tweed Side, which has been so much admired. * *Beginning, "What beauties does Flora disclose!" of life, felt the first emotions of genius, he wanted not models sui generis. But though the seeds of poetry were scattered with a plentiful hand among the Scottish peasantry, the product was probably like that of pears and apples-of a thou fifty are so bad as to set the teeth on edge; forty-five or more are passable and useful; and the rest of an exquisite flavour. Allan Ramsay and Burns are wildings of this last description. They had the example of the elder Scottish po In 1743, Sir Gilbert Elliot, the first of our lawyers who both spoke and wrote English elegantly, composed, in the character of a love-sick swain, a beautiful song, beginning, My sheep I neglected, I lost my sheep-hook, on the marriage of his mistress, Miss Forbes, with Ronald Craw-sand that spring up, nine hundred and ford. And about twelve years afterwards, the sister of Sir Gilbert wrote the ancient words to the tune of the Flowers of the Forest, and supposed to allude to the battle of Flowden. In spite of the double rhyme, it is a sweet, and though | in some parts allegorical, a natural ex-ets; they were not without the aid of the pression of national sorrow. The more modern words to the same tune, beginning, I have seen the smiling of fortune beguiling, were written long before by Mrs. Cockburn, a woman of great wit, who outlived all the first group of literati of the present century, all of whom were very fond of her. I was delighted with her company, though, when I saw her, she was very old. Much did she know that is now lost." In addition to these instances of Scottish songs produced in the earlier part of the present century, may be mentioned the ballad of Hardiknute, by Lady Wardlaw; the ballad of William and Margaret; and the song entitled The Birks of Endermay, by Mallet; the love-song, beginning, For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove, produced by the youthful muse of Thomson; and the exquisite pathetic ballad, The Braes of Yarrow, by Hamilton of Bangour. On the revival of letters in Scotland, subsequent to the Union, a very general taste seems to have prevailed for the national songs and music. "For many years," says Mr. Ramsay, "the singing of songs was the great delight of the higher and middle order of the people, as well as of the peasantry; and though a taste for Italian music has interfered with this amusement, it is still very prevalent. Between forty and fifty years ago, the common people were not only exceedingly fond of songs and ballads, but of metrical history. Often have I, in my cheerful morn of youth, listened to them with delight, when reading or reciting the exploits of Wallace and Bruce against the Southrons. Lord Hailes was wont to call Blind Harry their Bible, he being their great favourite next the Scriptures. When, therefore, one in the vale Beginning, "I have heard a lilting at our ewesmilking." best English writers; and what was of still more importance, they were no strangers to the book of nature, and the book of God." From this general view, it is apparent that Allan Ramsay may be considered as in a great measure the reviver of the rural poetry of his country. His collection of ancient Scottish poems, under the name of The Ever-Green, his collection of Scottish songs, and his own poems, the principal of which is the Gentle Shepherd, have been universally read among the peasantry of his country, and have in some degree superseded the adventures of Bruce and Wallace, as recorded by Barbour and Blind Harry. Burns was well acquainted with all these. He had also before him the poems of Fergusson in the Scottish dialect, which have been produced in our own times, and of which it will be necessary to give a short account. Fergusson was born of parents who had it in their power to procure him a liberal education, a circumstance, however, which in Scotland implies no very high rank in society. From a well written and apparently authentic account of his life, we learn that he spent six years at the schools of Edinburgh and Dundee, and several years at the universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews. It appears that he was at one time destined for the Scottish church; but as he advanced towards manhood, he renounced that intention, and at Edinburgh entered the office of a writer to the signet, a title which designates a separate and higher order of Scottish attorneys. Fergusson had sensibility of mind, a warm and generous heart, and talents for socie In the supplement to the "Encyclopædia Britannica.' See also, "Campbell's Introduction to the History of "Poetry in Scotland," p. 238. |